As many as 771 Mamta Raths have been flagged off on the Republic Day for creating health awareness and taking care of the health of women and children in the villages. The Raths will disseminate the message about health programmes from village to village. Every Rath has two doctors who apprise the people about the importance of life-saving vaccines and health examinations from time to time. The Raths will run throughout the year.
Vehicles of various health schemes are being used as Mamta Raths. At present, 771 vehicles have been deployed and 194 more vehicles will also deployed for creating health awareness in urban slums soon. In the second phase of Mamta Raths, arrangements have also been made to provide medicines as per needs of newborns, pregnant women and other people. Every vehicle will also have 2 assistants. Principal Secretary Health and Family Welfare Praveer Krishna has directed that all Mamta Raths must be manned by doctors. Mamta Rath teams are also increasing health awareness among villagers and providing information and guidance about first aid and treatment of various diseases.
Making health programmes village-oriented, efforts are being made to enhance quality of services being delivered in rural areas. Efforts to reduce maternal and infant mortality rate are succeeding. Village-level health services are being strengthened further to ensure more reduction in mortality rate of newborns and pregnant women. Pregnant women are being provided timely tests of blood pressure, haemoglobin, sugar etc and medicines. For this, responsibilities have been entrusted to ANMs, MPW and ASHA workers at village level.
The state government has described as important the distribution of iron pills and vaccination of about 24 lakh women and 1.14 crore children. Efforts are on for cent percent coverage of this ambitious programme. For this, help is also being taken through MCTS software specially prepared for the purpose.